In recent months, sex crimes — and the anxiety they produce — have filled the news. Listening to the hype, it may seem that sex crimes are on the rise and that the typical scenario involves strange men waiting in the shadows to assault children they've never met.

The reality is different, according to state and national law enforcement records, sex crime studies and experts interviewed by the Valley News. According to those sources, overall reports of sex crimes and sexual abuse are going down instead of up. There is one notable exception: rape rates, which have recently risen in New Hampshire and Vermont.

And while the above scenario is not unheard of, the most typical sex criminals are not strangers but family, friends or acquaintances. Also, though the majority of offenders are adults, at least one-third of those nationally, and in the Twin States, who target children age 12 and under are juveniles. And while most offenders are male, many who victimize young children are female.

In many ways, the available statistics on sex crimes contradict — or at least complicate — popular perceptions:

Perception: Sexual assault is on the rise.

Facts: Overall rates of sexual abuse — defined broadly as unwanted touching, from fondling to rape — have fallen steadily during the past decade.

One notable exception: Rape reports to New Hampshire police have been rising (although experts say that may be due, at least in part, to increased reporting by police agencies). And after years of decline, rape reports in Vermont recently began to rise again. Nonetheless, rates in both states remain far below the national rate.

In the last decade, the number of Americans age 12 and older who report being victims of rape or sexual assault has declined by about 35 percent, according to an annual U.S. Department of Justice survey.

Nationwide, sexual abuse of children and teens confirmed by state social service agencies also dropped by almost 45 percent between 1995 and 2003, the last year for which national records are available, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Reports of sexual abuse to Vermont and New Hampshire social service agencies have declined by more than 22 percent and 48 percent, respectively, over the last decade.

Across the nation, police departments received 10 percent fewer reports of rape for every 100,000 people in 2004 than in 1997, the year in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a new data collection program.

The rate of rapes reported to Vermont law enforcement authorities has dropped by about 25 percent over the same period — although the rape rate climbed in 2004, the last year for which figures are available.

The rate of rape cases reported by New Hampshire police has increased by 35 percent since 1997. However, at least some of the increase likely does not reflect an actual increase in rapes but, rather, increased participation by local police departments in the reporting program, said Karen Lamb, supervisor of the New Hampshire State Police Uniform Crime Reporting Unit.

The rates of rape reported to law enforcement agencies in Vermont and New Hampshire are roughly equivalent, averaging around 25 cases annually for every 100,000 people when rates are averaged over the past five years. That is less than 80 percent of the average national rate.

Perception: Rapists and child molesters are usually strangers.

Facts: The majority of sexual assaults are committed by people familiar to the victims: family members, friends or other acquaintances.

Sex crimes in Vermont and New Hampshire were 10 times more likely to be committed by a member of the victim's own family than by a stranger in 2004, the most recent year for which figures were available.

"I think we would all like to demonize the sex offender," said Max Schlueter, director of the Vermont Crime Information Center. "It becomes difficult to do that when the sex offender is a member of your family."

Friends and acquaintances make up an even bigger group of abusers, the data show. In general, abusers were strangers to their victims in only 2 percent to 3 percent of all cases reported to police in New Hampshire and Vermont in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Many sex crimes experts believe that sexual abuse in rural areas is more likely to be committed by people with a relationship to the victim, simply because people tend to have more close connections with each other in small communities, said Susan Lewis, a researcher and spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center based in Pennsylvania. In rural areas, she said, "you are very much likely to be sexually assaulted by someone you know — which means you are much less likely to report (the assault)."

Nationally, the Department of Justice estimates that between 30 percent and 40 percent of sex crimes are reported to law enforcement officials. Other surveys of victims suggest that percentage could be as low as 10 percent.

Perception: Most sex offenders are adults.

Facts: Adults commit almost all sexual assaults on other adults. But a large proportion of abusers — especially those who target younger children — are themselves juveniles.

Adults were the offenders in 79 percent of all sexual assaults and 96 percent or more of assaults on other adults, according to police reports from Vermont in 2004. In New Hampshire, adults committed two-thirds of all assaults and 100 percent of assaults on other adults.

However, people 17 years old and younger committed around 40 percent of all sexual assaults on New Hampshire and Vermont children aged 12 and under in 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available).

National figures show a similarly large number of young abusers. According to an analysis of data from the mid-1990s, sex offenders — regardless of the victim's age — were more likely to be 14 years old than any other age.

Perception: Most victims of sexual assaults are children.

Facts: Children are victims in approximately two-thirds of all sex crimes every year. However, most assaults against children involve fondling. There are relatively few child rape victims.

Police records in 2004 from Vermont show that 66 percent of all sex crime victims were under the age of 18, with almost 34 percent younger than 13. In New Hampshire, 71 percent were younger than 18 years old and almost 40 percent under 13.

But the proportion of young victims varies widely depending on the type of sex crime. For victims 17 and under, fondling was by far the most common offense in both states. Combined figures from New Hampshire and Vermont show that fondling makes up 63 percent of all cases for the youngest victims, while rape accounted for a quarter of the crimes.

For victims 18 and older, rape accounted for 61 percent of all sex crimes in the two states, while fondling cases were almost 29 percent of the total.

Perception: Most sex offenders are male and most victims are female.

Facts: Most offenders are male and most victims are female. But the percentage of female offenders and male victims rises in assaults against children.

In combined counts from Vermont and New Hampshire in 2004, 92 percent of all sex offenders were male. Meanwhile, females accounted for 83 percent of victims in the two states combined.